Managing Director of the Nigeria Deposit Insurance Corporation (NDIC), Mr Umar Ibrahim, has said that over 60 percent of Nigerians lack access to finance despite the proliferation of commercial banks in the country.
The NDIC boss who made the disclosure on Wednesday during a courtesy visit to the Senate president, Ahmed Lawan, said that the only way to lift Nigerians out of poverty was through massive inclusion in financial accessibility.
Ibrahim further advocated for the licensing of more financial institutions and their establishment at the hinterlands across the country for easy access to ordinary Nigerians.
He said, “The issue of financial inclusion is very critical globally, we have a lot of statistics that indicate clearly that about 60% of Nigerians do not have access to finance.
“People travel for hundreds of kilometers before they can reach a branch of Commercial or micro finance Bank.
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“There are local government and communities that do not have any branch of bank. They do not have ATM machines, they have nothing and you cannot achieve those without some kind of sustainable financial inclusion.
“We are working hard to ensure that the situation is changed in addressing the problem of poverty.
“In achieving this, Nigeria has signed ombudsman to eradicate or to eliminate the problem of access to finance.
“Measures have been taken to ensure that we gain more mileage in this area by way of establishing more micro finance banks, licensing mobile banks, creation of agent banks.”
He urged the Ninth National Assembly to revisit the request of the corporation for repeal and reenactment of its Act which failed to sail through during the Eight National Assembly as the the corporation is putting up more stringent measures against financial and cyber frauds.
He continued, “We are working very hard on issues pertaining to fraud and forgery in the banks.
“We are interfacing with relevant offices and other stakeholders to minimize incidences of cyber crime in our banking system.
“The banks are being encouraged to ensure that they have full proof cyber security system so as to minimize the incidences of hacking which results in serious loses to the banking system and loss of earnings and loss of confidence”.
“Part of the emerging trends globally in the banking space is the emergence of block chains technology and crypto currency. Crypto currency is one example of block chain technology. These are new innovations that can be effectively used in checkmating fraud.”
In his response, the Senate president assured the NDIC boss and his team that the 9th National Assembly will work on the Act the 8th Assembly could not finished.
He also tasked the NDIC and the banking sector generally to provide required financial facilities for Nigerians interested in agriculture in line with the diversification policy of the government.
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